Many will begin their fitness journey with the New Year right around the corner. Becoming more active is a great first step toward enjoying all of the incredible benefits of exercise, including improved moods, better sleep, and higher confidence.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned fitness guru, allow this guide to help you optimize your fitness. Here are 9 helpful fitness tips to set yourself up for success in 2023.
1. Eat To Optimize Recovery.
Everyone should eat a balanced diet with nutrients that aid in the body’s ability to recover. The amount of food in terms of calories and the ratio of macronutrients (fats, carbs, and proteins) varies for each individual.
If you are strength training, you should include more protein in your diet to aid muscle repair and growth.
Those who focus heavily on cardio should increase the number of carbs they eat as they are essential for any extended high-intensity workout.
2. Listen To Your Body.
Overtraining is a common occurrence for a lot of fitness gurus. Although it is always good to push yourself, understand when the outcome will no longer benefit you. This is especially true for those strength training.
Common signs of overtraining include:
- Intense muscle soreness that lasts more than 2 days
- Feeling fatigued at the start of the day
- Insomnia
- Mood swings
It’s time to take a break from the gym if you exhibit some of these overtraining signs. To get back on track, add another day of complete rest to your schedule and reduce your volume or intensity for a week.
3. Add Strength Training to Your Workout.
Strength training encompasses more than just bodybuilders gaining muscle in a gym. For persons of all ages and fitness levels, regular strength or resistance training is beneficial to slow the natural loss of lean muscle mass that occurs with aging.
In a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research in October 2017, it was found that postmenopausal women with poor bone mass could benefit from just 30 minutes twice a week of high-intensity resistance and impact training without experiencing any adverse side effects.
4. Stay Hydrated.
Drinking adequate fluids will improve your endurance, help you stay focused, and help you perform at your best. Staying hydrated keeps your body temperature and heart rate from being elevated.
The human body contains a significant amount of water; between 60 and 70 percent of your body’s weight is water. It is necessary for the functioning of every system and metabolic process in your body.
5. Cardio Matters.
Although strength training is essential to fitness, getting an adequate amount of cardio is just as important. Cardio improves heart function, manages blood pressure, mood, and energy.
A study in 2017 published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the best weight loss strategy is to combine strength training and cardio.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises those of 18 and up to get:
- minimum 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise OR
- minimum 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise
6. Always Stretch.
Stretching after a hard workout is one of the most important components of fitness that is commonly ignored. After an exercise, stretching sore and tired muscles is crucial to improve flexibility and minimize muscle tension.
We require our muscles’ flexibility to maintain the range of motion in our joints, so stretching keeps them strong, flexible, and healthy. Without the proper range of motion, muscles are weak and unable to expand fully. You risk developing joint soreness, muscle strains, and other injuries.
7. Get Enough Sleep.
The National Sleep Foundation suggests that healthy adults should get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night.
Sleep enhances muscle recovery through a cascade of human growth hormone, which is released during your deeper stages of sleep. Growth hormone secretion dramatically decreases when we don’t get enough sleep. Inadequate growth hormone levels are linked to reduced exercise capacity and muscle mass loss.
8. Write Down Your Goals.
A study on goal setting was conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, involving 267 participants. She discovered that writing down your goals increases your chances of achieving them by 42%.
When you take time to write down your intended goal, you are forced to choose a particular objective and make a decision. Many people often become stuck because they haven’t decided on a goal.
9. Focus on Forming Habits
From the moment we wake up until the time we go to bed at night, our daily routines are filled with numerous decisions and activities, of which nearly half are habits.
By committing to habits, you may free up your brainpower to make wiser judgments, do your best work when you’re mentally at your best, and maintain your course even when things are challenging.
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